1 Chapter 1: Rise And Fall
"—Hey, let me tell you one creepy thing about humans..."
"Aaaahhh!" "S-Save me!" "Nooo!"
*Boom!* *Bang!* *Boosh–!*
Amidst an unceasing rain of blood and human organs pouring down from above, a lone man stood in silence, surrounded by a crowd of panicking citizens.
"...there's just too many of them!"
His pristine white hair fluttered in the violent winds generated by the sneering trio of rampant curses – as every droplet of blood and organic material was unerringly repelled by his perpetually active <Infinity > technique.
"Woah, I seriously can't hit this guy! Hihihi, <Idle Transfiguration: Soul Multiplicity – Body Repel>!!!"
"Hmph, <Blood Manipulation: Convergence – Supernova>!"
*Boosh–!*
"A-Ahh!" "Ughya!" "M-Monsters!!"
A ghastly amalgam of noises, screams, and taunts echoed in his ear. But all he could do was watch, unable to stop the wanton massacre being committed by these weakling curses.
If he truly wanted, he could've ended this farce once and for all in a mere second or two.
After all, these special-grade curses were simply too weak, unable to even make him go all out in a serious battle...
...But right now, he just couldn't do that. They were a bit too good at slipping away, and he couldn't actively use his most trusted card in this situation.
—All because of these non-sorcerer humans surrounding him.
Because of them, he couldn't immediately use his domain technique to immobilize them all at once and finish them off, causing this cruel massacre to continue unabated.
*Crack~* *Crackle~!*
He looked down towards the ground for a moment, his fists clenching tightly in frustration.
Even though he was hailed as the strongest jujutsu sorcerer, he still couldn't deal with this situation by himself.
...Then, what was his title as the strongest even worth, if he couldn't even deal with these weak curses?
'No, that's not right. I can't use my domain because every human caught up in it will become a vegetable within a second. Then, all I need to do is...'
Then, suddenly, an utterly crazy, borderline insane thought appeared in his rapidly churning mind—
Since the non-sorcerer humans would turn into vegetables after a second, what if he used his domain technique only for a fraction of a second?
It would be just long enough for him to eliminate all the transfigured humans wreaking havoc everywhere while also stunning the trio of curses, but not enough to permanently damage a non- sorcerer's brain...
...It would be the perfect solution to his current dilemma.
He would be able to save all the non-sorcerer humans and exorcise these smug curses at the same time!
As soon as he conceived this thought, his <Six Eyes> showed him the feasibility of executing this solution he conceived in his mind to be indeed 'possible'.
Next, his instinct as the strongest sorcerer – momentarily sharpened by the <Six Eyes>'s ability – told him how long he needed to keep his domain active.
'Around 0.2 seconds, I guess...'
That was how long he had to simultaneously activate his domain technique, kill all these fragile transfigured humans, and deactivate his technique.
Any longer than that, and he would be directly responsible for a super-scale massacre of helpless humans.
"Hahaha! What happened, Gojo Satoru?!"
In the slowed-down world only visible to his glamorous eyes, he saw Jogo taunting him once again, while hiding among the haphazardly fleeing humans.
With a cold rage burning in his eyes, he looked straight ahead, a simple one-handed hand seal slowly forming in his raised right hand.
"Huh...?" "Wha–!"
"...Oi, oi, are you being serious now?"
The trio of curses immediately noticed the hand-seal, a cold dread grasping their innate cursed essence. They felt their inevitable doom suddenly closing an inescapable net around them.
...The activation of Gojo Satoru's domain expansion was imminent!
Pushed to the brink of a heavy psychological burden, Gojo Satoru was finally forced to take on this gamble.
"<Domain Expansion: Infinite Void>!!!"
A black-and-white world overlapped with the real world around everyone in the lowest floor of the Shibuya Metro Station, and everything that was caught within this world immediately froze in place.
*Whoosh–!*
...Except for a single person, or rather, a jujutsu sorcerer, that is.
Speeding past his bodily limits, Gojo Satoru rushed in every direction as his arms moved in a dizzy blur. Broken pieces of transfigured humans and blood splattered everywhere, dyeing the colorless world around him in a dim crimson color.
The fluttering white hair that had remained in pristine condition since the start of this battle was now splashed with dark red blood, along with uncountable tiny fragments of broken human flesh.
Compared to the massacre committed by the trio of curses, the massacre he caused was far larger in scale. The transfigured humans were far sturdier than regular humans. Not to mention, Gojo had to deal with both activating and deactivating his domain while doing everything...
...And yet, it was all concluded within just 0.2 seconds.
*Bang-!*
"Huff...Huff...Huff..."
He deactivated his domain, momentarily panting from overexerting himself—
*Tang!*
—When something unusual caught his attention. A creepy cubic-shaped cursed object flew through the air for a second, before heavily landing on the ground right in front of him.
*Whoosh–!*
The cube-shaped cursed object then immediately expanded, turning into a huge, creepy eye that stared at him unblinkingly.
'What...is that? Wait, is this the prison realm? Wasn't it under a seal by Tengen—No, if my guess is right, I need to get out of its activation range quickly!'
But just as he cautiously took a step back from the creepy eye, an old, familiar voice suddenly echoed in his ears, coming from behind that cursed eye.
"Yo!"
Gojo Satoru immediately paused in his tracks, slowly turning around to face the person that he had seen die with his very own eyes.
It was an impossibility. He had indeed seen him die with his own eyes. Then, how was he still standing here, in front of him like that...?
"...Have you been well, Satoru?"
Hearing that nostalgic voice he never expected to hear again in this life, a whirlwind of emotions he had long since buried deep within himself, began rising up from the bottom of Gojo's heart.
Scenes from his student days began flashing past his mind uncontrollably. A tiny smile threatened to break out on his face as he turned around to look at his dearest best friend's visage once again in years.
It was like a dream come true. For a moment there, he even wondered if he was hallucinating because it was his first overexertion in years.
...But then his <Six Eyes> informed him of its analysis.
'It's...It's real. It's his cursed energy signature! Everything is the same as him, it's Geto Suguru!'
"Sugu—"
*Wham-!*
But before he could even utter his name out loud, the cursed object he had almost forgotten about because of this unexpected and shocking encounter — activated!
*Woongg–!!*
Gojo suddenly found himself bound by the prison realm, his cursed energy no longer responding to any of his commands.
Looking up, he saw the person he thought to be his dearest friend subtly smiling at him.
His expression quickly hardened in realization.
"You...are not Geto Suguru."
"Hm? What are you talking about? I am Geto Suguru, can't you tell?"
The creature wearing Geto's body like a cheap pair of clothes looked confused, fueling Gojo's anger at him to rise rapidly.
"You sure have his body, and even his cursed energy. My eyes can't tell the difference either. Everything seems to be pointing at you being the real Geto Suguru. But..."
He fiercely glared at the impostor, swearing to smash it into a pulp the moment he got freed.
"...But my soul denies this! You are not him, you cannot be him! Tell me, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!!"
"Ehh... How the hell did you find out, I wonder?"
With a pull of a string, the creature wearing Geto's body revealed its true body — A creepy, perpetually grinning brain with rows of healthy, yellow teeth sat in the space where Geto's real brain was supposed to be.
The possessed body of Geto also mimicked the creepy brain's expression, a wide, face-splitting grin on his face.
That scene was the last thing Gojo remembered, before he was sealed inside the prison realm.
****
Some distance away, after being freed from the stun effect caused by Gojo's <Infinite Void>, Mahito playfully cracked his neck with a satisfied expression.
"Looks like Gojo Satoru has indeed been sealed. Heh, that creepy old guy's plan worked out, after all."
A tiny grin hung on his patchwork face as he imagined what kind of face his arch-nemesis would have upon receiving this news.
"...Aaah, I really can't wait to savor his desperation and despair!"
The grin on his face widened, and his arms extended on both sides around him. The last battle had depleted quite a sizable portion of his transfigured human stock. That's why...
"I need to restock these bodies a little, <Idle Transfiguration>! .....Eh?"
As he was rampantly transforming all nearby humans into tiny transfigured puppets, Mahito suddenly felt a little strange.
Among the humans he had transfigured, none of them were supposed to have the ability to control their cursed energy. Then why was he feeling a sudden surge of cursed energy from one of those humans...?
"...Hmm? Oho, what do we have here? A sorcerer got lost here?"
Even though Gojo Satou's domain technique should've left all these humans in this place in a comatose state, there was still a human being there that was showing some signs of movement.
Of course, the movement was only limited to a few involuntary twitches of his body muscles, but even more interestingly, his cursed energy output was fluctuating quite a lot.
It was a well-known fact that normal humans unconsciously emitted cursed energy, with them having no control over it.
That's why, the fact that this mundane human's cursed energy was fluctuating meant that...
"Hmm, let me see what's wrong with you..."
With a blob of ominous cursed energy swirling in his hand, Mojito gently touched the wide eyed, seemingly vegetable-ized citizen A's forehead, a curious smile hanging on his face.
"<Idle Transfiguration>! ....Huh?!"
But in the next moment, his eyeballs nearly popped off his sockets.
"W-What is this soul—!"
A ridiculously powerful burst of cursed energy suddenly exploded out from the mundane human's body, as Mahito's own body began to rapidly shrink in size!
A dark purple light lit up within the widened eyes of Citizen A, and the ethereal sounds of heavenly chains snapping into pieces rang out in the underground station of Shibuya.
*Whoosh–!*
Gradually, the maelstrom of cursed energy grew more and more intense around them.
Mahito was still struggling to free himself, pouring all his cursed energy into his innate cursed technique to separate a part of his soul and escape the apparent trap he had been caught in.
"Arghh–!"
However, no matter how much he tried, his cursed technique didn't respond to his commands. It was like he was caught in the vice-grip of another prison realm – but this one was actively sucking out his cursed energy while blocking the activation of his innate technique.
'No, no, no... At this rate, I'm going to die! Quick, I have to do something!'
For the second time in his cursed life, Mahito found himself breaking out in cold sweat. Not even touching Sukuna's soul felt so terrifying to him!
After all, right now, all his cursed energy was being unstoppably sucked out.
...And the moment it was completely depleted, as a being made purely out of cursed energy, Mahito was going to die.
Irrevocably.
"Then, how about this — <Cursed Energy Reinforcement>!"
Desperate to survive this strange encounter, Mahito balled up his fist with a whirlwind of cursed energy reinforcing his strike, before driving it straight into the guts of the human he previously assumed to be a non-sorcerer.
*Bang–!* *Crunch!*
His fist easily smashed into the ribcage, shattering the bones and crushing the internal organs of the oblivious man into a clean paste.
"N-No... No, this can't be happening right now... This can't be happening to me!!!"
But even after seeing the damage his single strike did, Mahito wasn't feeling happy at all.
"No, why? Geto, come and save me! Getoooo!!!"
*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*
...Instead, he became even more desperate, completely losing his mind and continuing to bash the human's body into a meat paste as much as he could.
His body size soon became smaller than an infant, but neither Geto nor Jogo appeared to save him at all.
His comrades were all far away from him, unable to hear his words due to the reverberating noise of humans on the upper floors of the station.
"Aaah, ah, ah! Waahh!"
His cursed energy-infused punches also became slower and slower until they halted completely.
A strangely peaceful silence took over. The dark purple glow in Citizen A's eyes slowly subsided, a small spark of intelligence shining within them.
"Huuuuu—!"
As if he was being choked to death until now, he began taking big gulps of air inside his lungs, while haphazardly glaring in all directions with his eyes wide open in surprise and terror.
His mushed-up body slowly began to mend itself, the lost blood and pieces of flesh reattaching themselves to his body like time was flowing backwards.
With his heart almost beating out of his chest, Takagi Hirotoshi muttered in an incredulous voice.
"What–!!! My heavenly restriction is broken...? How?"
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[Play the JJK song <You are my Specialz> here, as you imagine the camera panning out. I promise it'll fit the mood xD]
